Pokemon Legends: Arceus dares to challenge the status quo of the tried and quite successful Pokemon formula by getting rid of existing features while introducing new ones. Despite lacking breeding, held items, and abilities, Pokemon Legends: Arceus more than makes up for this loss by having new systems in place for catching Pokemon and battling, with an emphasis on strategy through Agile Style and Strong Style moves. Many old moves were also changed for Pokemon Legends: Arceus, rebalancing their base power, accuracy, and secondary effects based on the values for the game's new and returning moves, also trimming down the effective number of moves available across the board.
Aside from that, Pokemon Legends: Arceus introduces several new moves that are in most cases signature moves for new regional forms or existing Pokemon. While all these moves are balanced differently than they would in a mainline Pokemon game, such as Pokemon Sword and Shield, which is currently the only competitive hub for the franchise, there is a recurring theme of them being quite strong compared to regular moves. They also use different values and systems to calculate their effects, such as some moves increasing all defensive or offensive stats rather than a specific one. Overall, however, many of the Pokemon Legends: Arceus moves would be viable in competitive battles if they remained the way they are, but others wouldn't stand a chance.
Status Condition Moves
Pokemon games are not new to moves that become more powerful or add secondary effects based on status conditions applied onto opposing creatures, such as Venoshock's ability to deal double damage against Poisoned Pokemon. As such, it doesn't come as a surprise that moves like Barb Barrage, Bitter Malice, and Infernal Parade are not only included in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but they are also some of the game's best moves overall. These moves all share a base power of 60 and an accuracy of 100, but unlike Venoshock, they can also leave a specific status condition on the target (Poison, Frostbite, and Burn, respectively), and still retain the ability to deal double damage against targets with a condition applied onto them.
All three moves are exceptional in competitive Pokemon battles because the likelihood to apply their secondary effects is fairly high, sitting at a 30% chance for standard moves and raising up to 50% for Strong Style moves. While Barb Barrage's ability to apply Poison is the least valuable of the bunch, Bitter Malice and Infernal Parade can apply each a status condition that reduces the damage dealt by Special moves and Physical moves, respectively. This is insanely strong in competitive Pokemon matches, and both moves are Ghost-type, which is already very strong offensively.
Moves that apply status conditions alone are also often valuable, depending on the effects they do apply. Dire Claw is a fantastic example of this logic because it has decent base power and 100 accuracy, while also augmenting the user's critical strike chance by a stage when using this move and having a 50% chance to apply either Drowsy, Paralysis, or Poison. The move is found only on Sneasler in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, but if more Pokemon can use it in any mainline game it's likely going to be one of the best to use in competitive battles, especially because it's a Poison move that's super effective against Fairy-types.
Stat-Changing Moves and Status Moves
There are several moves that can alter the stats of a given Pokemon, be it the user or the target, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus features several new ones that do this. An example comes from Stantler and Wyrdeer's Psyshield Bash, which has a base power of 70 and a base accuracy of 90, also increasing the user's defensive stats (which, in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, means both Defense and Special Defense at the same time). A similar move is Esper Wing, which shares Psyshield Bash's Psychic-type and base stats, but it increases the user's critical strike chance when using the move and their action speed, which is likely to translate into extra Speed in mainline games. These moves would be amazing in competitive battles, despite them not being completely reliable.
Wave Crash is Basculegion's signature move, and it works similarly compared to Esper Wing, raising the user's action speed. However, it comes at the cost of dealing a third of the damage dealt back to the user as recoil damage, meaning that using it with other stat-boosting moves would leave the user too exposed in competitive battles. The same principle holds for Hisuian Electrode's Chloroblast, a move with 120 base power and 95 accuracy that doesn't suffer from the drawback of dealing reduced damage as a result of a Burn or Intimidate by being a Special attack, but the 50% recoil aspect of it makes it difficult to use in any competitive scenario.
Triple Arrows is Hisuian Decidueye's signature move, and it looks superb on paper because it deals damage, increases the user's critical strike chance for all subsequent moves, and also lowers the target's defensive stats. However, in competitive battles switches are rather common, making the defensive debuff inconsistent - plus, the critical strike chance increase is not a guaranteed critical hit, meaning that players are better off using two more reliable and powerful moves than this one and then another. On the other hand, Hisuian Lilligant's Victory Dance is one of the best moves in the game, if not the best, because it increases the user's defensive and offensive stats while increasing the damage dealt by the Pokemon by 50%, essentially buffing the user to the point that it can one-shot its foes.
Hisuian Sliggoo and Goodra's Shelter is a fantastic defensive move that increases the user's Defense and Special Defense, while also making it Obscured - which makes incoming attacks more likely to miss, probably being rather situational in competitive battles. Power Shift is a move that switches the user's offensive and defensive stats, making it a niche option for creatures like Shuckle, but still very underwhelming in competitive battles. The same can hold true for Take Heart, a move that increases all of the user's stats but Speed, while also removing its status conditions. This would seem powerful on paper, but in many cases, Speed is more valuable than other stats, and a double increase in Attack or Special Attack is also better in competitive fights.
Mystical Power is quite similar to Psyshield Bash and Esper Wing in terms of stats, but it increases the user's defensive stats if they are lower than its offensive stats and vice versa. Overall a strong move in competitive, but also one that can be extremely valuable on critters that have equal defensive and offensive stats for double the effect. Lastly, Lunar Blessing is probably one of the best moves in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and it belongs to Cresselia. The move heals the user's status conditions, heals for a total of 50% of its maximum HP, and it also makes the user Obscured - completely broken in competitive battles if it were to remain as is.
Attack Moves With Secondary Effects
Two very similar moves to one another in Pokemon Legends: Arceus are Ceaseless Edge and Stone Axe, respectively the signature moves of Hisuian Samurott and Kleavor. They share base stats and secondary effects, with the only variable being their type - Dark for the former, Rock for the latter. These moves have a base power of 60 and a base accuracy of 90, and they both increase the user's critical strike chance while using them, also applying jagged splinters on the target, dealing residual damage at the end of the target's turn. Both Ceaseless Edge and Stone Axe can be quite effective in competitive battles, but their effectiveness can vary based on the target's type.
Mountain Gale is Hisuian Avalugg's signature move, and it follows in the footsteps of other Physical Ice-type moves by having great power and low accuracy, even though the move's effectiveness comes from it also having a 30% chance to make the target flinch, like Waterfall. However, there is little room for it in the competitive scene, and while it could still find its way in a Pokemon's kit, it wouldn't be the primary choice in many scenarios. Similarly, there is no room for Ursaluna's Ground-type Headlong Rush move, which acts as a sort of Ground Close Combat because it decreases the user's defensive stats. The issue with it is that other similar moves exist, like Earthquake, and they are just better overall.
Ultimately, there are four new moves that are each the signature move of one of the genies from Gen 5, with the remaining fourth belonging to Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Enamorus. Generally speaking, these moves are not worth using in competitive battles because they all share a base power of 95 and a base accuracy of 80, making them very inconsistent at best, and potentially making players lose matches at worst due to them missing the target. These are: Wildbolt Storm for Thundurus, Sandsear Storm for Landorus, Bleakwind Storm for Tornadus, and finally Springtide Storm for Enamorus.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now for the Nintendo Switch.
